Mr George is a robust believer in sustainability, having experienced a setback in his solar hot water production, he called us to get a second opinion on its efficiency. The thing about true sustainability is not how fancy your sustainable device is. What matters is how it is installed in relation to sun, and how many 'carbon corners' can get cut by considering all aspects of the installation.

Mr George's existing collector was not working efficiently because the thermostatic heat sensors were installed in the wrong places, which ended up confusing the digital controller and causing it to pump the water erratically. Furthermore, the whole system was undersized for his family's needs. Here's what we did.

a 250 liter Duratherm Solar Geyser: the average human uses approximately 50liters of hot water per day. Mr George's family of five was not receiving enough hot water from the existing 150liter geyser, and so this geyser was using electricity backup for most of the day as the hot water was continually being used. Adding more storage space means that the water has a better chance of sustaining 'thermal mass', where new water enters into a hot water tank rather than a cold one. The adjusted configuration sees the new tank of 250liters connected in series with the old tank of 150liters, making 400liters of hot water storage.

a 24 vacuum-tube solar collector installed alongside the previous one (as pictured): 48 vacuum tubes is calculated to service 400 liters of stored water. The old collector and the new one are of the same basic design, and have been the same since they were invented. The technology is solid state, no moving parts, and can not be designed more efficiently in its class.